Transformative Technology Initiative

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

As globalization pushes county governments into the modern era more and more every day, it has become very evident that local governments must transform their technological infrastructure to not only connect with the rest of the world but to also provide better services for county residents. In Michigan, Muskegon County wanted to continue to provide exceptional services to residents, but was held back by its aging technological infrastructure. Specifically, Muskegon County was running on an aging network with a prohibitively slow connection speed. Security was also a problem; the network servers were housed in an unsecured room, which overheated very frequently. In response, Muskegon County started their Transformative Technology Initiative. The initiative started with an upgrade to a fiber optic network in 2005. Muskegon County installed the first phase of a new VOIP system, which improved communication and financial efficiencies. By upgrading the capability of the fiber optic network, Muskegon County was able to stretch its network, meaning more coverage, while retaining high percentage availability. The upgraded system also facilitates the design of a highly available, multiservice network. Ultimately, Muskegon County consolidated its network from multiple technologies to one, immediately eliminating inefficiencies in the system and changing the network management to a much more holistic approach. Muskegon County subsequently replaced its 35 disparate, unsecured servers with a five blade data service center with two new virtualized appliances. Virtualized data center architectures make it easier to respond to business demands, ultimately consolidating massive amounts of data and providing easy, virtual access to the data at any time. As a result of implementing the VoIP phone system, phone bills were instantly reduced from $75,000 to $20,000 per month (2005). In the latest installment (2011), the cost of employee phone usage and management has been further reduced to approximately $1,200 a month. In all, this technological upgrade has resulted in savings of more than $200,000 per year. On top of these savings, the county has seen countless other costs being cut by this program.